Stories of a Female Learner in a High School Physics Classroom: Care, Connectedness, and Voice.

Robinson, Scott

The purpose of this interpretive case study is to make sense of the way a female high school student interacts with a male physics teacher. This paper highlights the actions and interactions of the female student according to her own way of knowing which is consistent with how many female adolescents make sense of their experience. Two story narratives are used to describe the student's sense making in the context of her experienced and preferred classroom environments. The differences between what she experiences and what she prefers make explicit the incompatible world views which constrain her participation in the physics class. Significant findings are: (1) the female learner has a desire to enter into a caring relationship with the teacher to learn the physics content; (2) the teacher's form of humor constrains the student's connectedness with him; (3) the student comes to a better understanding of physics concepts through discussions in which her voice is valued; and (4) multiple instructional strategies enable the student to enter into an array of caring relationships which motivate her to participate in learning activities. Contains 35 references. (Author/JRH)